Public Speaking: Social Anxiety Change & Awareness

In my first blog, I conduct research online about social anxiety and discussed what I’ve gathered/learned from it. Then, I conducted research on my own concerning people that suffered from social anxiety disorder in my second blog. The society we currently live in is made by and for neurotypicals. Neurotypical means “neurologically typical,” referring to those who do not suffer or have not experienced any mental trauma or disorders. Deciding to make a change in society about social anxiety and/or public speaking has always been a goal for me. Currently, I’m working with Jhazzelle Majarucon and TK Saccoh for our Agent of Change. I’ve decided to form a team with them because I believe that we’ve never worked on anything school related. I want to be able to create a bond between us that not only involves friendship, but also work.

My previous research had gathered much needed information about those who need help and others who have those close to them suffer from social anxiety disorder. I reasoned with my group that we could create a change in the community through the Internet. We used the Internet at our disposal because of the fact that a lot of people use it everyday in a sense where they communicate through social media. Some people may be more comfortable sharing their stories in the Internet anonymously.

Our main goal to end social anxiety is to get people to speak up about their stories and situations. Many people are uncomfortable with sharing their information, but that’s alright. It’s a part of the process, and we understand. Although, even if they did tell us their stories, we wouldn’t just read it and try to deem it as a loss cause. My team and I would actually help them by communicating online because we want people to feel accepted in society. The society we live in isn’t just for neurotypicals, everyone can live in harmony even though they’ve faced problems in their lives.

Figures 1 & 2: Here is the home page of our website. It links to our blog posts and information we’ve gathered about social anxiety.

Raising awareness and helping educate those who don’t know much about social anxiety disorder is a part of our Agent of Change as well. Not only do we want people to contribute by telling us about their stories, but we also want them to participate in the #ToungeTwisterTask. This challenge is created for those who want to raise awareness in social anxiety, which affects 1 in 8 people. By participating, people can make a change, using the hashtag and posting it on their social media networks. The idea is that people who suffer from these conditions avoid social and public situations. Their lives are compared to a tongue twister, confusing and hard to get out of the way. Participants in the challenge can post a short video of themselves reciting tongue twisters, and/or they can donate to the cause by the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety.

Figures 3 & 4: This is the part of our website that includes the pages where you could share your own story of social anxiety. Or, to raise awareness for social anxiety by reciting a tongue twister.

So far, we've gathered several people (teachers, students, family members, etc.) to do the #TongueTwisterTask, and video taped them. We compiled them in a folder.

Click here to view my sources.